CCC Hudson: Scandal, Questions, and Hope

The week leading up to and including Sunday August 4th, news broke via the Cleveland Scene and the Akron Beacon Journal regarding a years-long scandal involving the failure of leadership at Christ Community Chapel Hudson to adequately understand and respond to events at the Sankey Orphanage in the Philippines. The failures most publicly involve the church’s senior pastor Joe Coffey and well-known missionary Tom Randall. Let me clarify why I feel compelled to write.

To be clear: I am for this local church and its leadership. They inhabit a distinct place in the spiritual landscape of Summit County. They have influenced a lot of lives over the years. I know several current and former attenders, members, and staff. They have enjoyed outward success growing a church.

I would argue finding success in responding to the fallout of this scandal could leave an even bigger impact on both the local and national spiritual landscape.

Yes, you read that right.

Churches and leaders rarely get these situations right. Leaders often play cover and/or run as bewildered members struggle to make sense of it all. This particular scandal happens to have landed a couple zip codes away. Or as they say, too close to home. Thus, I have a vested interest in their success in seeking true restoration. If CCC Hudson should eventually choose to take the proper steps of open repentance, accountability, and reparation, they will have the chance to leave a unified, Christ-exalting legacy in Summit County and an example believers in similar situations can follow.

The Scandal

First, the scandal. I do not wish to re-hash the events. I’ll point you to other sources for details. See a good summary from the Akron Beacon Journal here and visit www.justiceforsankey.com to get the information if you’re not familiar. Read the 27 page report and questions about it here. At its core, the scandal almost certainly involves direct abuse of young people, and the abuse of power in many ways to cover up this abuse.

Why Is This a Big Deal?

If you attend a local church, or have in the past, allow me to let you in on a secret: those leading that church have not achieved nor will they achieve perfection. No leader you know lives without blind spots or weaknesses. I am certainly a man with faults. The only question: Can leaders acknowledge those weaknesses and allow those in their lives to help them through them?

We expect leaders to mature, we hold them (biblically and rightfully so) to higher standards, and sometimes this leads us to the false assumption of their spotlessness. This often creates loneliness – who really has the qualifications to call out the pastor? – which leads to isolation, which can lead to the abuse of power. Power, friends, is not a neutral thing. You either use it for building others up or you use it for unhealthy purposes. Every leader you know will regularly struggle with and sometimes fail regarding how they use the authority God and their local church has given them.

This case, involving a church and fellow believers in close geographic proximity, not only affects all believers’ view of leadership. It also affects other local churches. If you don’t think that statement rings true, consider the many honest, non-gossip based conversations I have witnessed or participated in both prior to and since the release of the report. What happens to one part of the body of Christ affects other parts of the body of Christ. In about half of these instances, I have not initiated these conversations.

Ultimately, this now very public and wide reaching scandal connects to our understanding of and the outworking of the very Gospel we believe. If we rush to forgiveness without the naming of wrongs, we de-value the justice Christ suffered for our sins on the cross. May we seek all the right things in this situation so that the foundation of the Christian faith may be accurately represented!

The rest of this post will take two forms. First, questions I have for the leadership of the church and for its members. Second, my hope for all those involved in this situation.

Hard Questions

Before reading the list, please know I do not ask these from afar or while hiding behind a screen. I have directly shared these questions with a personal contact in decision making authority at CCC Hudson. I pray with and for the leadership as they sort these out in the weeks and months ahead.

1. Where do the victims of sexual abuse thousands of miles away rank in the church’s priorities during the coming months? What will and should justice specifically look like as you seek to support them in their increasingly complicated situations?
2. Similarly, where do the offenses against Joe Mauk, local advocates, and your own members rank in your efforts in conciliation? Will you let outside voices inform you of healthy steps forward in these matters?
3. What specific steps will you take to uncover absolutely everything that happened both within your church and in the orphanage in question?
4. Are leaders willing to take serious short or long term hits to their reputation, status, position, or possibly freedom in order to come totally clean about the consequences of their actions?
5. Is the church willing to experience a reduction in tithes, attendance, and membership as part of the honest and expected fallout from this situation?
6. Will this scandal cost anyone their job? Has fouling up trust with a congregation over five + years and diminishing sexual abuse victims pushed any leader in any position beyond biblical standards and/or credibility in the short term and to the point of toxicity?
7. Does any view of healing and reconciliation exist showing how it might prove best for some leadership to step aside?
8. Do you truly believe local believers can say they are for you yet challenge your decisions and communication regarding the handling of this scandal?
9. Where does Biblical lament fit into your view? Would you consider asking the applause to cease and beginning to help both your congregation and onlookers understand the weight of the wrongs done in this situation?
10. Do you believe that lowering yourselves will build up your church and the body of Christ in our area?

I do not enjoy writing these questions. I mean them not to taunt in any way. They represent hard realities any church in this situation should courageously consider. The questions can actually lead to unity as believers pray for the church as it wades through these waters.

See, as heavy as the questions land, my end goal involves hope.

I Corinthians 13:7 –  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Even though this much wrong has occurred? Even though misdeeds have negatively affected or potentially destroyed so many young lives? Even though these wrongs have realistically shaken the faith foundations of many congregation members, former students, victims, and advocates?

Yes, real hope. This hope, friends, emerges from the reality of the cross of Jesus Christ. The murderous blood shed there in the face of seething hatred demands we hope. That blood, rich with mercy for any sinner who would trust it for God’s forgiveness, also demands we prop doors open to hope for the glory of God even in the presence of heart-wrenching failure of leaders of Christ’s Church.

So, I hope. Will you join me with a hopeful outlook:

1. For the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual restoration of all victims due to the care they receive during this time as right replaces wrong?
2. For a pursuit of truth, so the world may know we value it even if it makes us look bad?
3. For the godly example of true repentance from the leaders of CCC Hudson, involving both pursuit of and admission of acknowledgement of all wrongs? Will we fervently pray for the blessing and legacy this would leave in Summit County and beyond in the years to come?
4. That even the most ardent opponents of the church and its leaders would consider true Biblical forgiveness should the above mentioned repentance actually happen?
5. For refreshing spiritual care and healing for those who have advocated for justice for years?
6. For those advising CCC Hudson’s leaders during this time, that God would continue to provide the right words from the right people at the right time?
7. For the Lord to uphold the faith of anyone shaken or confused by these events?
8. For unbelievers in our local area to see a witness so humble, repentant, and powerful that some come to faith in Jesus?

Please take time after reading this to pray for the body of Christ in Summit County. May justice take root. May the coming chapters of this story exalt Christ amidst heavy hearts, broken lives, and great difficulty. May this difficult work of reconciliation represent everything the Word of God says it should!